Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Causing anger, displeasure, or resentment.
- adjective Disagreeable to the senses.
- adjective Making a physical or military attack.
- adjective Of, relating to, or designed for attack.
- adjective Sports Of or relating to a team having possession of a ball or puck.
- noun An attitude or position of attack.
- noun A physical or military attack or assault.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Serving to offend, assail, or attack; used in attack: opposed to defensive: as, offensive weapons.
- Consisting in or proceeding by attack; assailant; invading; aggressive: opposed to defensive.
- Serving to injure; injurious.
- Causing or giving offense; fitted or intended to offend or give displeasure; provocative of displeasure; insulting; annoying; displeasing: as, an offensive remark; offensive behavior.
- Disgusting; disagreeable; giving pain or unpleasant sensations: as, an offensive smell.
- noun With the definite article: An aggressive attitude or course of operations; a posture of attack: as, to act on or assume the offensive.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Giving offense; causing displeasure or resentment; displeasing; annoying.
- adjective Giving pain or unpleasant sensations; disagreeable; revolting; noxious
- adjective Making the first attack; assailant; aggressive; hence, used in attacking; -- opposed to
defensive - adjective a leaque that requires all the parties to it to make war together against any foe, and to defend one another if attacked.
- noun The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack; aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; -- opposed to
defensive . - noun to be the attacking party; to initiate hostilities.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Causing
offense ; arousing a visceral reaction of disgust, anger, or hatred. - adjective Relating to an
offense orattack , as opposed todefensive . - adjective team sports Having to do with play directed at scoring.
- noun countable, military An attack.
- noun uncountable The posture of attacking or being able to attack.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective violating or tending to violate or offend against
- adjective unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses
- adjective causing anger or annoyance
- adjective causing or able to cause nausea
- adjective morally offensive
- adjective for the purpose of attack rather than defense
- adjective substitute a harsher or distasteful term for a mild one
- noun the action of attacking an enemy
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word offensive.
Examples
-
"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
Derrick Crowe: Secretary Gates and Friends Backpedaling on Kandahar 2010
-
State senator Frederica Wilson from Miami says she finds the term offensive and she says, "An alien to me is someone from outer space."
-
As I say in my long list of comments, not only is the term offensive, it is terribly imprecise and journalistically worthless.
Introducing "Think Twice" Word Detection System To OpEdNews 2007
-
As I say in my long list of comments, not only is the term offensive, it is terribly imprecise and journalistically worthless.
Introducing "Think Twice" Word Detection System To OpEdNews 2007
-
Glenn Greenwald, for example, takes on Ann Althouse who claims to find the term offensive as well as Glenn Reynolds who calls it "a variety of bigotry."
Hullabaloo 2006
-
"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
Jihad Monitor 2010
-
"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
-
"We cannot say the term offensive for Kandahar," said the Afghan National Army officer in charge here, Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai.
-
"The media have chosen to use the term offensive," he said.
-
"We cannot say the term offensive for Kandahar," said the Afghan National Army officer in charge here, Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai.
-
An empathy offensive to ensure material support for all need not even be kind, at least not in the conventional way we tend to think of kindness.
Drafting a Law Office Memorandum | CUNY School of LawCUNY School of Law 2023
-
In the wake of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder last week and grassroots outrage at the healthcare industry, the company is undertaking an empathy offensive. “We know the health care system isn’t perfect,” says an internal company memo sent from UnitedHealthcare’s Executive Council today, which I obtained. “There is more work we can do and must do,” the message continues.
UnitedHealth's New "I Feel Your Pain" PR Blitz Ken Klippenstein 2024
-
The speech was the latest in Biden’s empathy offensive—a series of remarks and public appearances that talk about the pain at the heart of the nationwide protests, while calling for unity to confront systemic racism.
Joe Biden’s Empathy Offensive Charlotte Alter 2020
afredricks commented on the word offensive
In some cultures, it's offensive to take pictures of people without their permission.
May 20, 2009